While many scoffed at Battlefield 3's late-arriving competitor to Call of Duty Elite, it seems to have worked quite splendidly for the publisher. More than 800,000 players have signed up for Premium in its first two weeks of availability, EA Games' Patrick Soderlund revealed. Although Premium less a "service" like Elite and more of a DLC Season Pass, the $50 asking price does include a lot of content. Namely, Premium includes access to over $75 worth of content, making it a "value" for hardcore fans of the series. Speaking to USA Today, Soderlund said that "we are very pleased with the performance so far." When asked if this strategy is something EA will pursue with future games, he said: "We're actually only two weeks into it, so it's a little early to tell how this is going to pay off. It certainly it looks very promising right now."

Call of Duty Elite currently has over two million paying subscribers, a number which took about six months to reach.

I didn't honestly have much of an issue with EA before this, because the BC2 DLC was at least worth it, but now I'm buying 50 dollar DLC for a couple of map packs one of which I got before this even existed. At least if Origin puts it on deal I'll buy it, else wise good joke guys, I got more content out of the initial 40 bucks I got BF3 for.

I bought BF3 at midnight on release day, but I prefer to buy the DLC one at a time. I'm currently waiting for my bank to transfer the funds for Close Quarters to my PayPal account.

The new knife doesn't interest me, playing with devs doesn't interest me, Premium specific dog tags don't interest me, and the recently announced Double XP for a WEEK certainly doesn't interest me. Aside from saving a whole $10 by buying Premium, (Karkand is free to anyone with a copy of BF3 now, and the price of Premium doesn't change no matter how many DLC's you've bought already), the rest of the perks are useless to me.

I am glad that they are at almost half of what CoD's Elite service has raked in, in much less than half the time though. F*** CoD!

The new knife doesn't interest me, playing with devs doesn't interest me, Premium specific dog tags don't interest me, and the recently announced Double XP for a WEEK certainly doesn't interest me. Aside from saving a whole $10 by buying Premium, (Karkand is free to anyone with a copy of BF3 now, and the price of Premium doesn't change no matter how many DLC's you've bought already), the rest of the perks are useless to me.

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You know that you get to play the expansions 2 weeks earlier than the unwashed, and get a preference in the server queues, right? Most of us have already played the hell out of CQ.

I bought BF3 at midnight on release day, but I prefer to buy the DLC one at a time. I'm currently waiting for my bank to transfer the funds for Close Quarters to my PayPal account.

The new knife doesn't interest me, playing with devs doesn't interest me, Premium specific dog tags don't interest me, and the recently announced Double XP for a WEEK certainly doesn't interest me. Aside from saving a whole $10 by buying Premium, (Karkand is free to anyone with a copy of BF3 now, and the price of Premium doesn't change no matter how many DLC's you've bought already), the rest of the perks are useless to me.

I am glad that they are at almost half of what CoD's Elite service has raked in, in much less than half the time though. F*** CoD!

I didn't honestly have much of an issue with EA before this, because the BC2 DLC was at least worth it, but now I'm buying 50 dollar DLC for a couple of map packs one of which I got before this even existed. At least if Origin puts it on deal I'll buy it, else wise good joke guys, I got more content out of the initial 40 bucks I got BF3 for.

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By the time Premium is "done" you will have more content in DLC then you have in vanilla BF3.

This is imo how premium services should be done and it helps knowing each DLC gives us all new maps, guns and vehicles and actually gives a different spin on the game ... I don't see myself hating EA at all unfortunately as BF3 is still uniquely an awesome game. But yeah, this is intended for fans only so its not a surprise some people would rather wait 2 weeks more to play a DLC and shell out more money OT as they don't play the game as much.

I'm buying 50 dollar DLC for a couple of map packs one of which I got before this even existed. At least if Origin puts it on deal I'll buy it, else wise good joke guys, I got more content out of the initial 40 bucks I got BF3 for.

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I feel the same way. No need to prepay for non-existant stuff and/or dlc that may not be of interest. I bought BF3 and Karkand seperately on sale and I'm sure EA will run another sale for CQ and whatever comes out of the pipe.

I didn't honestly have much of an issue with EA before this, because the BC2 DLC was at least worth it, but now I'm buying 50 dollar DLC for a couple of map packs one of which I got before this even existed. At least if Origin puts it on deal I'll buy it, else wise good joke guys, I got more content out of the initial 40 bucks I got BF3 for.

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There are four total, one of which you already have. Once all packs are out, you have MORE than double the maps vs when you started. Seems like a fair deal to me. Not to mention double XP if you care, it costs less than buying individually... What did I miss?

There are four total, one of which you already have. Once all packs are out, you have MORE than double the maps vs when you started. Seems like a fair deal to me. Not to mention double XP if you care, it costs less than buying individually... What did I miss?

EDIT: I see TMM said the same thing above.

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To be fair, my initial comparison was bad, BF3's maps that came with the game were both atrocious and very few. But I've stopped playing the game as of a few weeks ago regardless, great game but can't get my head around a few things they've changed recently. Like I said I'll buy this just like I bought Karkand, after it goes on deal. 15 dollars for Karkand was already bad enough, even if they were great maps. Also as I said, I got BF3 for just thirty-eight bucks or so I believe, fifty dollars for a bunch of map packs just seems greedy compared.

I got BF3 for just thirty-eight bucks or so I believe, fifty dollars for a bunch of map packs just seems greedy compared.

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i got mine for 29.99 on the 1st 1/2 price sale. IMO buying Premium, even moreso if u got bf3 for a deal is a no brainer. Its not just maps, there is new vehicles in AK and the perks and content drops are just icing on the cake.

I'm glad BC2 was my first and last game in the BF franchise. Mostly clueless idiots playing, laughable anti-cheat, they closed down their forum, and now they are essentially making you buy a load of DLC to keep playing? Nope.